Crazy Photon

* hugs and for everyone*

^ This. Social Media has way more impact to one's privacy that OS selection. Thanks! I do have a beard nowadays, so yeah, a bit more "seasoned" It really depends on the type of people, all of the OSs are vulnerable if not properly hardened. Even Windows with proper hardening and tuning can be good enough. Personally, I like having better knowledge of which services are running, hence I like Arch Linux, but it's not something that everyone is willing to do. I also use OS X daily. I do have a couple of windows boxes but I barely use them (my gf does though).

Long time no see guys! Haven't read the rest of the topic, but yeah, try to stay away from Windows if you value your privacy. Linux and OS X have good variety of games now, thanks to Steam. Note that even other OSs are not a panacea, there are privacy issues that are becoming cross-platform. Some relevant guides: http://www.ghacks.net/2015/07/30/windows-10-and-privacy/ https://fix-macosx.com/ https://fixubuntu.com/

Thanks right on it! (it's on sale on Steam )

Long time no see What's up? Over here I've been well, lots of work. Noticed that there's a new XCOM, so I may hang around more often around these places when I get my hands on it!

Beers & cake for everyone!!! :P

I am having a rough week over here so feel free to take my turn, regarding the cruise mission, I think it was a good idea.

Option one for me!

No, but I installed *all* the patches from the files section, including the USO fix, USO Routes fix, Interception Screen fix and Dye Grenade Fix... I assumed everyone else did when I read this post.

Done with the mission. I created a base for myself, although I think we'll be done with this game before its construction is finished.

Geoscape part: Lots of extra stuff are sold and others transferred to Outpost 1 (as offsite backup) in order to take the stores out of 100% storage. A soldier is hired to replace the latest loss. 2 very small subs are downed. Triton arrives at base and a couple of dye grenades are put into the mix. Outpost 2 was created at the easter mediterranean sea. Its role will be mainly for detection, early interception and storage base. Triton dispatch for the downed lobsterman sub is delayed until the next morning, in the meanwhile Sub 54 is downed: As soon as the sun goes up Triton goes to Sub 51 location. Tactical part: 2 lobbies are spotted near the LZ, they are promptly nuked and MCed by Munty. One of them dies to reaction fire, the other one tries shooting at a third alien that was also spotted by the tank (but misses). The dye is cast at the Triton's exit hatch. The tank unhides to spot the last spotted lobbie, now there are two, becoming prime candidates for DPLing. After they are DPLed, Munty controls the armed lobbie, shoots at the other one, throws at him the sonic cannon and turns around, discovering a third DPLed alien, who is killed by the tank to prevent reaction fire on the soldiers. Astra takes down an alien from the previous turn. Stefan stuns the remaining soldiers in that area. Gerhard takes another alien that was spotted during the alien movement phase. Another alien is killed on the next turn, but not much else happens. Troops take a moment to properly exit out of the LZ area. A lobsterman is sought looking after his comrades, but a barrage of sonic shots takes him down, Boris doing the killing shot. A lobsterman is spotted hiding in the northern bushes, and is promptly DPLed (since most other shooters have already exhausted their TUs). Munty shows off his sniping skills to end its life and this ordeal (it was the last alien). Savegame for the next commander (good luck with the Tasoth sub!): GAME_1.zip

Ok, I'll do this tomorrow since it's already late over here!

Should I wait for Grossbear?

Tactical mission: The tank starts scouting around, the first alien is detected almost immediately. Munty's MC abilities are put to the test, and his first attempt at MC is successful. The soldier starts looking around for his comrades, but a shot from the east takes it down. The tank goes into the general direction came from, triggering reaction fire but the shot misses. After a few more meters, the alien is spotted: Carlos Bonal throws a pulser, which lands on its left foot. The alien dies after the pulser goes off. Another alien is spotted, and most of our troops have a bad angle for shooting or throwing pulsers at it, so the tank has a go in exchanging shots. After the turn ends, I consider myself lucky not to join the tankbusters club (for now anyways) as the tank has only 2 HP left. Charlie takes the alien with a snap shot after kneeling on the Triton's roof. Another alien is immediately spotted afterwards by the tank, which is quickly dispatched by Norton. The tank discovers yet another alien, and retreats to avoid reaction fire during the alien's turn. Carlos Bonal shoots but misses, and Louis Dreyfus makes the kill. Rinse and repeat for the next alien! The troops slowly move outside of the protective dye cloud, and in doing so, Uma spots another one. She steps back, and then shoots at the alien, downing it. The tank resumes scouting, and discovers yet another camper (what's up with that, never seen so many gillmen on the second floor ). Charlie takes it down. The next turn is unevenful, and the troops expand their search area. Munty goes to a sniping position at a small natural peak on L3. A gillman is spotted hiding on the next turn, and Charlie continues improving his shooting skills, the alien biting the dust. Another gillman is spotted hiding among the shadows near the entrance of the craft. Munty is the only one that has a relatively good angle, and has to move for a bit before he can make the shot. The alien's heart stops beating shortly afterwards. The tank attempts to move, but immediately discovers two more aliens who stand next to the last alien's corpse. Carlos kills one of them on the next turn, but the other one is lost for the moment. Since the path to the alien's vessel seems to be clear, most of the troops make a run for it. An alien holding a thermal shock launcher is temporarily spotted inside of the USO. After dancing back and forth, the alien starts coming out of its hiding place, and Carlos seizes the opportunity to kill the alien. The thermal shock launcher alien is identified afterwards and Jaime Bonal (Carlos' brother?) downs it with his own termal shock launcher. Our troops manage to get a look at the interior, spotting 4 aliens at the same time! Munty MCs one to wreak some havoc, killing one alien, MCing another one, and apotting two more :-S (and I was thinking that we were almost done...). Jaime opens the craft's main door and stuns 3 more aliens. The last MCed alien kills the first one and disarms itself. Jaime kills it with a sonic pistol on the next turn. Billy wets his suit when a gillman with a DPL opens the door and almost shoots at him at point blank, but the alien goes hiding. He still kills the alien though, which turns out to be the last one. Mission successful, no casualties, no zrbite either: Savegame for the next commander: GAME_1.zip

Geoscape part: I started by selling extra corpses and stuff. Noticed that we have technicians idle and that we actually are very low on Zrbite, so we need to be conservative for a while... Triton is reequiped, actually only the dyes are added to the mix, the rest is unchanged. Roster was also modified to exclude people on MC training. Barracuda 4 received its second sonic oscillator. Barracudas 1 and 2 go on patrol around the US, since the Graph shows high alien activity in zones (probably related to the previous wave of downed USOs), but nothing comes up. Time passes, and Alien Origin research is completed. Research is started on a Lobsterman Navigator. Then this shows up: I immediately send Barracuda 3 for interception, knowing that it won't survive if by any chance if the USO attacks. However, the alien vessel patrols twice in the eastern coast between Miami and New York, then flees and vanishes. Barracuda 1 is sent to the last known position but to no avail. In the meantime, the scientists have successfully interrogated the navigator, giving the key to investigate the Ultimate Threat, which is started right away. Barracuda 3 is resent on patrol, and discovers a second alien base north of Canada: Just before it returns to base, another alien ship is detected, which is downed by Barracuda 1: Troops are alerted and Triton 1 is dispatched to salvage the remains of the USO.

Yeah, lesson learned. EDIT: Done, sorry for the delay

Dang it, for some reason I subscribed to this thread but e-mail notifications are not arriving... I'll get it done today.

Geoscape: I sold most of the extra stuff at base - mainly extra corpses and a few extra items (we don't need so many MC readers or Magnetic Navigations). I didn't sell the sonic cannons though, I think 30 is too many, but I guess it's ok if the base is ever attacked. The Triton is then reequipped, and a couple of soldiers were assigned. I also gave Munt the Mag Ion Armor he deserves. Then it heads to the downed escort ship as soon as it is refueled. Tactical: The 11 soldiers slowly deploy on the LZ, setting the usual dye grenade to cover the door. No aliens are spotted yet. Once Munty and others try to peek from the cloud, two aliens are spotted. The first one is promptly killed, the second one gets a DPL on its back but is still alive with 40 HP remaining. After the end of turn, two lobbies came close to our troops touting their claws and cannons. I think it's safe to assume they are not there to talk, so the troops open fire at them, taking them out without too much effort. Gerard tries to stun the injured lobster but fails. Rudi takes care of it, stunning it instead of killing it though. Gerard spots an alien walking far near their first casualty but the hill blocks his vision. When goes up one level to peek the alien reacts though, the shot vanishing in the distance. After a few shots, Rudi downs it. Since no more aliens are spotted the troops start to fan out. Munty quickly spots one in the east corner of the map. Tatyana stuns it with one greatly aimed shot, ending the mission! Savegame for the next commander: GAME_1.zip

Ok, seems that it's my turn to advance the plot a bit... stay tuned for more updates. EDIT: I'm done already, it was a quick and painless mission. posting now...

Ok, that was a quick mission, fortunately! and with DPLs, these kind of missions are way easier. NKF, the transmission resolver is not complete yet, it has 18 days to go still, so I left it there. I wasn't sure what to research next, so I put the particle disturbance sensor, that should give the next commander a chance to assign something else once it's finished.

Tactical mission: The tank discovers our breakfast right after exiting the Triton. One DPL blast softens it up and with 24 hp remaining, Bill knocks it for good. A second lobby is spotted near the first one. After a shot from Billy, its health goes down to 73. The MC reader also displays that it's a technician, so an attempt is made to capture it. A shot from Grigory's launcher does the job. The tank barely moves to continue scouting, and another lobby is spotted. This time we don't have more TUs to read its status, so we try to kill it. After 2 shots it lies dead on the seafloor. The tank continues moving toward the sub, that appears to be intact. As it starts looking around, it finds a lobby hidden among the rocks. A DPL launch from Rodreigo seems to clear the rocks but the lobby is still alive. Munty tries to kill it from above but there is no line of fire. Once the tank regains control, another lobster is spotted right next to the first one, so the DPL has softened 2 aliens instead of one. A few soldiers look for their grenades that are stored in their shoulders, and another Rodreigo throws one in the backs of both aliens. The grenade explodes, taking both of them to the grave. There are a few sounds coming from the craft. When the tank turns to it, a lobster is found trying to come back to the sub. Klaus fires but misses. Munty fires and hits. the MC reader is used. Just a regular soldier, with 67 HP left. Rodrigo fires and hits it again (man, this one's tough!). Carlos fires and hits again, but the alien still stands. Bill tries his luck one more time, and succeeds. Another alien tries exiting the craft, but enters it again when it sees the tank. Another alien tries approaching from the north, trying to remain unnoticed, but the tank spots it on time. Another volley of shots are fired at this one too, and Munty closes the deal. The tank goes hiding at the top of the craft, trying to remain hidden to the lobby that is inside the craft. The deed works, and at the next turn the lobby is outside of the craft, ready to be slaughtered. Munty adds another line on his kill counter. The tank tries taking a look inside the craft. Unfortunately it's all destroyed on the inside, except from another lobster facing its shiny rear ends at the tank. The tank fires once, and the lobster retaliates, but the tank is unharmed and fires at it one more time, then it goes into hiding at the top of the sub. 90 HP remaining for the lobster. The tank fires twice again, getting another bullet in exchange, but no harm is done. However, the retaliation did not come from that alien because it didn't turn to shoot at the tank, so there is probably another alien inside. This ordeal is repeated one last time, and the tank kills the lobster. Seems that the lobster not turning to shoot was a glitch, because the mission ends afterwards! Savegame for the next commander: GAME_1.zip

Geoscape summary: Extra stuff is sold (1 of each item was kept just in case we need them later): corpses, various alien base items (implanter, reanimation zone, learning array, cloning, cryogenics). Hired 7 soldiers to replace last mission's losses. Triton 1 returns to base and it was reequiped, mainly grabbed some soldiers from the last hired ones. Destroyed a very small craft. Mag Ion Armor production complete, started cranking out 4 oscillators for the barracudas. Another very small craft was destroyed. General Stores is finished on Outpost I. Rearmed barracudas with oscillators. 7 more Mag Ion Armors being built for the new arrivals. The new soldiers arrive, and I do a full review of the roster. Triton is reequiped with troops that are not in MC implantation and are not too good with MC skill (except Munty, who gets to be the team leader). Soldiers are also graded in Psi Strength (p/x) Hammerhead research complete, Particle disturbance sensor is the next topic (wow, I have never researched this one so late!) Lobby Escort downed - proceeding to salvage operations.

Roger that NKF, good luck on the second part silencer_pl!

I'm alive and well guys, I've been pulling some long hours at work (70+ hours last week). I'll go after silencer_pl if that's ok with everyone. Now, for some reason I had subscribed to this topic and somehow the e-mail notifications stopped arriving...